Saturday, September 21, 2013

Random Costco news: $17,000 Scotch, Jimmy Fallon, and the New York Times

Random Costco news for the week included Jimmy Fallon, McCallan Scotch, and the New York Times.

$17,000 Scotch

Costco is selling at least one bottle of a rare McCallan Scotch, bottled in Lalique glass. A bottle of this scotch, aged for 60 years, sells at Costco for $16,999, other places for $20,000. Only 400 bottles were manufactured, 72 are in the US. Not sure how many of those are in Costco.

The $16,999 scotch sounds cheap compared to the most expensive bottle of whiskey ever sold, also McCallan in Lalique. In 2000, a bottle of 64 year old McCallan whiskey, in a one-of-a-kind Lalique bottle (pictured) sold at auction for $460,000. According to the Guinness Book of World Records, this was as the most expensive bottle of whiskey ever sold. The auction benefited "water", a charity that provides safe drinking water throughout the world.

New York TimesAlso this week, The New York Times ran an editorial connecting big box stores, and Costco by name, to the obesity epidemic. I've thought about this editorial a lot. We know that obesity is a larger problem in lower socioeconomic levels and those are not Costco's demographic, but it's also true, as dietitian/nutritionists, like my friend Rose, would tell us, that having that tempting food around means we're more likely to eat it.

And that tub of Almond Bark is calling my name. I don't think Costco is related, even tangentially, to the obesity epidemic nationally. I think it's mostly the computer revolution which has us all so inactive so much of the day. But, in my specific case, the ready availability of the Costco almond bark/cherry clusters/animal crackers may not be unrelated to a few of my personal extra pounds.